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popthebutterfly
Disclaimer: I received this arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Let's Get Back to the Party
Author: Zak Salih
Book Series: Standalone
Diversity: Gay MC and other LGBT+
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Memoirs, LGBT+
Publication Date: February 16, 2021
Publisher: Algonquin
Pages: 288
Recommended Age: 18+ (Sexual content, Language, Depression)
Synopsis: What Does It Mean to Be a Gay Man Today?
It’s just weeks after the historic Supreme Court marriage equality ruling, and all Sebastian Mote wants is to settle down. A high school art history teacher, newly single and desperately lonely, he envies his queer students their freedom to live openly the youth he lost to fear and shame.
So when he runs into his childhood friend Oscar Burnham at a wedding in Washington, D.C., he can’t help but see it as a second chance. Now thirty-five, the men haven’t seen each other in a decade. But Oscar has no interest in their shared history. Instead, he’s outraged by what he sees as the death of gay culture: bars overrun with bachelorette parties; friends getting married, having babies.
While Oscar and Sebastian struggle to find their place in a rapidly changing world, each is drawn into a cross-generational friendship that treads the line between envy and obsession: Sebastian with one of his students and Oscar with an older icon of the AIDS era. And as they collide again and again, both men must come reckon not just with one another, but with themselves.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I like how it's focused on the experiences of older gay man and I felt like this would be a relatable book for many people. The book also does well on character development and world building.
However, the book doesn't really get deep and it seems to keep readers at a distance, which begs to question how relatable it could be if it doesn't let people in. Both of the main characters are also very toxic and I'm not sure if that's who people, especially people new to gay culture, should be reading about.
Verdict: It was good!
Book: Let's Get Back to the Party
Author: Zak Salih
Book Series: Standalone
Diversity: Gay MC and other LGBT+
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Memoirs, LGBT+
Publication Date: February 16, 2021
Publisher: Algonquin
Pages: 288
Recommended Age: 18+ (Sexual content, Language, Depression)
Synopsis: What Does It Mean to Be a Gay Man Today?
It’s just weeks after the historic Supreme Court marriage equality ruling, and all Sebastian Mote wants is to settle down. A high school art history teacher, newly single and desperately lonely, he envies his queer students their freedom to live openly the youth he lost to fear and shame.
So when he runs into his childhood friend Oscar Burnham at a wedding in Washington, D.C., he can’t help but see it as a second chance. Now thirty-five, the men haven’t seen each other in a decade. But Oscar has no interest in their shared history. Instead, he’s outraged by what he sees as the death of gay culture: bars overrun with bachelorette parties; friends getting married, having babies.
While Oscar and Sebastian struggle to find their place in a rapidly changing world, each is drawn into a cross-generational friendship that treads the line between envy and obsession: Sebastian with one of his students and Oscar with an older icon of the AIDS era. And as they collide again and again, both men must come reckon not just with one another, but with themselves.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I like how it's focused on the experiences of older gay man and I felt like this would be a relatable book for many people. The book also does well on character development and world building.
However, the book doesn't really get deep and it seems to keep readers at a distance, which begs to question how relatable it could be if it doesn't let people in. Both of the main characters are also very toxic and I'm not sure if that's who people, especially people new to gay culture, should be reading about.
Verdict: It was good!
Disclaimer: I received this ebook from the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Letters to Jupiter
Author: Lotte Jean
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Self care, letting go, poetry
Publication Date: October 24, 2020
Publisher: Magnolia Press
Pages: 78
Recommended Age: 14+ (toxic relationships, self care, letting go)
Synopsis: Letters to Jupiter is a poetry collection that explores a tale of the fragility of the mind. With each poetic letter, written by an unknown narrator seeking to let go of the past, we see life at its darkest time, brightest, and examine how much a person can grow after a life-changing event.
Review: This was a cute collection of poems. I really thought the book did well to paint a vivid picture and it would be a great book for the poetry lover in your life. The poems do deal with some difficult subjects like toxic relationships and the importance of self care.
Verdict: It's a sweet book.
Book: Letters to Jupiter
Author: Lotte Jean
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Self care, letting go, poetry
Publication Date: October 24, 2020
Publisher: Magnolia Press
Pages: 78
Recommended Age: 14+ (toxic relationships, self care, letting go)
Synopsis: Letters to Jupiter is a poetry collection that explores a tale of the fragility of the mind. With each poetic letter, written by an unknown narrator seeking to let go of the past, we see life at its darkest time, brightest, and examine how much a person can grow after a life-changing event.
Review: This was a cute collection of poems. I really thought the book did well to paint a vivid picture and it would be a great book for the poetry lover in your life. The poems do deal with some difficult subjects like toxic relationships and the importance of self care.
Verdict: It's a sweet book.
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Of Silver and Shadows
Author: Jennifer Gruenke
Book Series: Standalone?
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended For...: ya, fantasy, heist books
Publication Date: February 26, 2021
Publisher: Flux
Pages: 480
Recommended Age: 15+ (violence, gore, romance, assassination, slight language)
Synopsis:Ren Kolins is a silver wielder—a dangerous thing to be in the kingdom of Erdis, where magic has been outlawed for a century. Ren is just trying to survive, sticking to a life of petty thievery, card games, and pit fighting to get by. But when a wealthy rebel leader discovers her secret, he offers her a fortune to join his revolution. The caveat: she won’t see a single coin until they overthrow the King.
Behind the castle walls, a brutal group of warriors known as the King’s Children is engaged in a competition: the first to find the rebel leader will be made King’s Fang, the right hand of the King of Erdis. And Adley Farre is hunting down the rebels one by one, torturing her way to Ren and the rebel leader, and the coveted King’s Fang title.
But time is running out for all of them, including the youngest Prince of Erdis, who finds himself pulled into the rebellion. Political tensions have reached a boiling point, and Ren and the rebels must take the throne before war breaks out.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I liked the story and the plot was intriguing. It kept me hooked on the book until the end. The characters were also very well developed.
However, the beginning is really hard for the reader to get into. It's wrote in a bit of a wonky way and the pacing is really slow in the beginning. The book also didn't have a lot of world building.
Verdict: It was a good book.
Book: Of Silver and Shadows
Author: Jennifer Gruenke
Book Series: Standalone?
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended For...: ya, fantasy, heist books
Publication Date: February 26, 2021
Publisher: Flux
Pages: 480
Recommended Age: 15+ (violence, gore, romance, assassination, slight language)
Synopsis:Ren Kolins is a silver wielder—a dangerous thing to be in the kingdom of Erdis, where magic has been outlawed for a century. Ren is just trying to survive, sticking to a life of petty thievery, card games, and pit fighting to get by. But when a wealthy rebel leader discovers her secret, he offers her a fortune to join his revolution. The caveat: she won’t see a single coin until they overthrow the King.
Behind the castle walls, a brutal group of warriors known as the King’s Children is engaged in a competition: the first to find the rebel leader will be made King’s Fang, the right hand of the King of Erdis. And Adley Farre is hunting down the rebels one by one, torturing her way to Ren and the rebel leader, and the coveted King’s Fang title.
But time is running out for all of them, including the youngest Prince of Erdis, who finds himself pulled into the rebellion. Political tensions have reached a boiling point, and Ren and the rebels must take the throne before war breaks out.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. I liked the story and the plot was intriguing. It kept me hooked on the book until the end. The characters were also very well developed.
However, the beginning is really hard for the reader to get into. It's wrote in a bit of a wonky way and the pacing is really slow in the beginning. The book also didn't have a lot of world building.
Verdict: It was a good book.
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: The Iron Raven
Author: Julie Kagawa
Book Series: The Iron Fey: Evenfall Book 1, The Iron Fey book 8
Rating: 3/5
Recommended For...: ya, fantasy, fae
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Pages: 336
Recommended Age: 16+ (Violence, Gore, Slight romance)
Synopsis: You may have heard of me...
Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool… King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.
With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten.
Review: For the most part the book was pretty good. I felt like the characters were well developed and I really like the world building. I also like the plot, but that was only after I was almost done with the book.
The book to take a bit for me to get into and then it took most of the novel to get to the point of the book. I know that a lot of first books in a series have that problem where they spend the majority of the book world building and getting the reader interested in the series, but I felt like at around 70% of the book to get to the point of it was a little too much.
Verdict: It was a good start.
Book: The Iron Raven
Author: Julie Kagawa
Book Series: The Iron Fey: Evenfall Book 1, The Iron Fey book 8
Rating: 3/5
Recommended For...: ya, fantasy, fae
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Pages: 336
Recommended Age: 16+ (Violence, Gore, Slight romance)
Synopsis: You may have heard of me...
Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool… King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.
With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten.
Review: For the most part the book was pretty good. I felt like the characters were well developed and I really like the world building. I also like the plot, but that was only after I was almost done with the book.
The book to take a bit for me to get into and then it took most of the novel to get to the point of the book. I know that a lot of first books in a series have that problem where they spend the majority of the book world building and getting the reader interested in the series, but I felt like at around 70% of the book to get to the point of it was a little too much.
Verdict: It was a good start.
Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: The Future is Yours
Author: Dan Fray
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3/5
Recommended For...: mixed media format, ya, sci-fi
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: Del Ray
Pages: 352
Recommended Age: 15+ (rogue AI, slight language, romance, slight sexual content)
Synopsis: If you had the chance to look one year into the future, would you?
For Ben Boyce and Adhi Chaudry, the answer is unequivocally yes. And they’re betting everything that you’ll say yes, too. Welcome to The Future: a computer that connects to the internet one year from now, so you can see who you’ll be dating, where you’ll be working, even whether or not you’ll be alive in the year to come. By forming a startup to deliver this revolutionary technology to the world, Ben and Adhi have made their wildest, most impossible dream a reality. Once Silicon Valley outsiders, they’re now its hottest commodity.
The device can predict everything perfectly—from stock market spikes and sports scores to political scandals and corporate takeovers—allowing them to chase down success and fame while staying one step ahead of the competition. But the future their device foretells is not the bright one they imagined.
Ambition. Greed. Jealousy. And, perhaps, an apocalypse. The question is . . . can they stop it?
Told through emails, texts, transcripts, and blog posts, this bleeding-edge tech thriller chronicles the costs of innovation and asks how far you’d go to protect the ones you love—even from themselves.
Review:I had to dnf this book at about 45% of the way through. much like the supercomputer in this book I found this book way to predictable for my liking. I'm not saying that I've read this before and that it's plagiarism, but I do feel like I know the story already.
Verdict: Not for me but maybe for you!
Book: The Future is Yours
Author: Dan Fray
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3/5
Recommended For...: mixed media format, ya, sci-fi
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: Del Ray
Pages: 352
Recommended Age: 15+ (rogue AI, slight language, romance, slight sexual content)
Synopsis: If you had the chance to look one year into the future, would you?
For Ben Boyce and Adhi Chaudry, the answer is unequivocally yes. And they’re betting everything that you’ll say yes, too. Welcome to The Future: a computer that connects to the internet one year from now, so you can see who you’ll be dating, where you’ll be working, even whether or not you’ll be alive in the year to come. By forming a startup to deliver this revolutionary technology to the world, Ben and Adhi have made their wildest, most impossible dream a reality. Once Silicon Valley outsiders, they’re now its hottest commodity.
The device can predict everything perfectly—from stock market spikes and sports scores to political scandals and corporate takeovers—allowing them to chase down success and fame while staying one step ahead of the competition. But the future their device foretells is not the bright one they imagined.
Ambition. Greed. Jealousy. And, perhaps, an apocalypse. The question is . . . can they stop it?
Told through emails, texts, transcripts, and blog posts, this bleeding-edge tech thriller chronicles the costs of innovation and asks how far you’d go to protect the ones you love—even from themselves.
Review:I had to dnf this book at about 45% of the way through. much like the supercomputer in this book I found this book way to predictable for my liking. I'm not saying that I've read this before and that it's plagiarism, but I do feel like I know the story already.
Verdict: Not for me but maybe for you!
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Girlhood: Teens around the World in Their Own Voices
Author: Madina Ahuja
Book Series: Standalone
Diversity: girls around the world and of almost every race, nationality, and ethnicity.
Rating: 5/5
Recommended For...: Girls and female identifying people or really anyone, I don't judge
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Pages: 256
Recommended Age: 12+ (dreams and hopes)
Synopsis: What do the lives of teenage girls look like in Cambodia and Kenya, in Mongolia and the Midwest? What do they worry about and dream of? What happens on an ordinary day?
All around the world, girls are going to school, working, creating, living as sisters, daughters, friends. Yet we know so little about their daily lives. We hear about a few exceptional girls who make headlines, and we hear about headline-making struggles and catastrophes. But since the health, education, and success of girls so often determines the future of a community, why don’t we know more about what life is like for the ordinary girls, the ones living outside the headlines? From the Americas to Europe to Africa to Asia to the South Pacific, the thirty-one teens from twenty-nine countries in Girlhood Around the World share their own stories of growing up through diary entries and photographs. They invite us into their day-to-day lives, through their eyes and in their voices, in a full-color, exuberantly designed scrapbook-like volume.
Review: I really like this book. I think that this is a good book for a lot of teens to read especially girls who are the target demographic here. the book does well to show how different teens live in different parts of the world and I really like how they did that. They focused on ordinary teens in ordinary lives and it made the book something extraordinary. At the heart of the book you really will realize that while we have a ton of differences between each other, we all basically have the same dreams and wants.
Verdict: it was good!
Book: Girlhood: Teens around the World in Their Own Voices
Author: Madina Ahuja
Book Series: Standalone
Diversity: girls around the world and of almost every race, nationality, and ethnicity.
Rating: 5/5
Recommended For...: Girls and female identifying people or really anyone, I don't judge
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Pages: 256
Recommended Age: 12+ (dreams and hopes)
Synopsis: What do the lives of teenage girls look like in Cambodia and Kenya, in Mongolia and the Midwest? What do they worry about and dream of? What happens on an ordinary day?
All around the world, girls are going to school, working, creating, living as sisters, daughters, friends. Yet we know so little about their daily lives. We hear about a few exceptional girls who make headlines, and we hear about headline-making struggles and catastrophes. But since the health, education, and success of girls so often determines the future of a community, why don’t we know more about what life is like for the ordinary girls, the ones living outside the headlines? From the Americas to Europe to Africa to Asia to the South Pacific, the thirty-one teens from twenty-nine countries in Girlhood Around the World share their own stories of growing up through diary entries and photographs. They invite us into their day-to-day lives, through their eyes and in their voices, in a full-color, exuberantly designed scrapbook-like volume.
Review: I really like this book. I think that this is a good book for a lot of teens to read especially girls who are the target demographic here. the book does well to show how different teens live in different parts of the world and I really like how they did that. They focused on ordinary teens in ordinary lives and it made the book something extraordinary. At the heart of the book you really will realize that while we have a ton of differences between each other, we all basically have the same dreams and wants.
Verdict: it was good!
Disclaimer: I received this ebook from the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: The Storyteller's Daughter
Author: Victoria McCombs
Book Series: Storyteller's Series Book 1
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Ya, romance, retelling, fantasy
Publication Date: May 7, 2020
Publisher: Indie Published
Pages: 360
Recommended Age: 14+ (slight violence, romance, kidnapping, being used as a pawn)
Synopsis: For as long as anyone can remember, every child in Westfallen has been born with a Gift, and these Gifts defined them.
Then Cosette is born, Giftless.
An attempt to hide her misfortune brings her before the King, who entraps her to use her Gift as a pawn in his war.
Caught in a lie, Cosette desperately searches for a power strong enough to free her. Intrigued by whispers of an old king and a dark curse, she calls upon Rumpelstiltskin and finds him trapped in a magic deeper than she bargained for. Now, Cosette must fight to reclaim her freedom from the King and break Rumpel’s curse. When time runs out, she’ll lose more than her heart. She’ll lose her life.
Review: For the most part I felt like this was a really good book. I like that this is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling because I have really never read one off the top of my head. I liked that the characters were so well developed and that the author took time for that and I also really enjoyed the world building. I like the aspect that in this world you are weird if you aren't born with a gift. That just seems so storybookish but so you need at the same time lol. I also thought that the pacing was well done and the plot kept me intrigued from start to finish.
The only real issue I had with the book was that the author went a bit once upon a time with the relationship pairing. The main character feels like she is Belle from Beauty and the Beast and then we have our Rumpelstiltskin character, and I really didn't like the pairing of them and once upon a time and it really kind of turned me off of the series although I do plan to get back into it in the future. So when I read this book, at a bit of a flashback to that series and it turned me off of it a little bit. But I thought that the author did much better than once upon a time in the relationship between the two.
Verdict: It was a good book!
Book: The Storyteller's Daughter
Author: Victoria McCombs
Book Series: Storyteller's Series Book 1
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Ya, romance, retelling, fantasy
Publication Date: May 7, 2020
Publisher: Indie Published
Pages: 360
Recommended Age: 14+ (slight violence, romance, kidnapping, being used as a pawn)
Synopsis: For as long as anyone can remember, every child in Westfallen has been born with a Gift, and these Gifts defined them.
Then Cosette is born, Giftless.
An attempt to hide her misfortune brings her before the King, who entraps her to use her Gift as a pawn in his war.
Caught in a lie, Cosette desperately searches for a power strong enough to free her. Intrigued by whispers of an old king and a dark curse, she calls upon Rumpelstiltskin and finds him trapped in a magic deeper than she bargained for. Now, Cosette must fight to reclaim her freedom from the King and break Rumpel’s curse. When time runs out, she’ll lose more than her heart. She’ll lose her life.
Review: For the most part I felt like this was a really good book. I like that this is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling because I have really never read one off the top of my head. I liked that the characters were so well developed and that the author took time for that and I also really enjoyed the world building. I like the aspect that in this world you are weird if you aren't born with a gift. That just seems so storybookish but so you need at the same time lol. I also thought that the pacing was well done and the plot kept me intrigued from start to finish.
The only real issue I had with the book was that the author went a bit once upon a time with the relationship pairing. The main character feels like she is Belle from Beauty and the Beast and then we have our Rumpelstiltskin character, and I really didn't like the pairing of them and once upon a time and it really kind of turned me off of the series although I do plan to get back into it in the future. So when I read this book, at a bit of a flashback to that series and it turned me off of it a little bit. But I thought that the author did much better than once upon a time in the relationship between the two.
Verdict: It was a good book!
Disclaimer: I received this ebook from the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Woods of Silver and Light
Author: Victoria McCombs
Book Series: The Storyteller's Series Book 2
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Ya, fantasy, retelling, robin hood
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: The Parliament House
Pages: 350
Recommended Age: 15+ (violence, slight gore, slight romance, death)
Synopsis: Ronin’s son is dead, but a sorceress banished to the Woods can bring the child back if he and his Silver Raiders do something for her first. She finds there's nothing Ronin Hood won't do for his son…
Anika finds herself drawn to the mystery of the Woods and the thieves who live within, but the cost of associating with the Silver Raiders becomes higher than she's willing to pay. The darkness of the Woods seeps into the Raider's hearts, blurring the lines between hero and villain, until Anika's fight for freedom turns into a fight to survive the magic of the trees that should have never been awoken.
This isn't the tale of Robin Hood you remember.
Review: I really like the writing of this book as well. this is a companion novel to the first book which is the storyteller's daughter the author does well in writing and in distinguishing the two different novels. The writing is also really unique in Robin Hood retellings because Robin Hood is a little bit of a bad guy here. Again the character development and world building are very well done and I really enjoyed this book.
The only issue I had with this book was the pacing. I felt that it was too slow for this book and I really just kind of wanted it to get to the point.
Verdict: this was a good book!
Book: Woods of Silver and Light
Author: Victoria McCombs
Book Series: The Storyteller's Series Book 2
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Ya, fantasy, retelling, robin hood
Publication Date: February 9, 2021
Publisher: The Parliament House
Pages: 350
Recommended Age: 15+ (violence, slight gore, slight romance, death)
Synopsis: Ronin’s son is dead, but a sorceress banished to the Woods can bring the child back if he and his Silver Raiders do something for her first. She finds there's nothing Ronin Hood won't do for his son…
Anika finds herself drawn to the mystery of the Woods and the thieves who live within, but the cost of associating with the Silver Raiders becomes higher than she's willing to pay. The darkness of the Woods seeps into the Raider's hearts, blurring the lines between hero and villain, until Anika's fight for freedom turns into a fight to survive the magic of the trees that should have never been awoken.
This isn't the tale of Robin Hood you remember.
Review: I really like the writing of this book as well. this is a companion novel to the first book which is the storyteller's daughter the author does well in writing and in distinguishing the two different novels. The writing is also really unique in Robin Hood retellings because Robin Hood is a little bit of a bad guy here. Again the character development and world building are very well done and I really enjoyed this book.
The only issue I had with this book was the pacing. I felt that it was too slow for this book and I really just kind of wanted it to get to the point.
Verdict: this was a good book!
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: The Broken Miracle
Author: J.D. Netto and Paul Crandall
Book Series: The Broken Miracle Duology Book 1
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Contemporary, hope
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Publisher: All Heart Publishing
Pages: 226
Recommended Age: 15+ (death, slight romance, depression)
Synopsis: We take many things for granted—but having a heart isn't one of them. Paul Cardall is an internationally acclaimed pianist whose career has been an inspiration to millions. But before the awards and success, he was just a little boy with half a functioning heart.
Numerous surgeries and many decades later, Paul is building a successful career despite the limitations his condition have infringed upon him. Now a husband and father, it seems that Paul has everything he could have ever hoped for...until his heart begins to fail.
As time passes, the pressure of his waning health and the seemingly endless wait for a new heart test not only Paul's faith, but his marriage and relationships as well. He begins to wonder if luck will ever be on his side or if it's time he let the curtains fall in what could be the final act of his life.
Though characters and places were fictionalized for storytelling purposes, the main events in the duology are real. Drawn from private notes and journals made available to the author, The Broken Miracle is a riveting story that will take the reader on an unforgettable journey.
Review: If you are wanting a book that will make you sob, this is your book. The book is very heartbreaking and it deals with a lot of things revolving around loss and hopelessness, but also miracles and hopefulness. I felt that the book was very well done and very well written. I really liked the character development and how the characters interacted with each other. I felt that that was very genuine in how they talked and interacted with each other. I also really like the world building and I felt like the plot hooks you in and doesn't let you go until you finish it and you are a sobbing mess on your bed.
the only really issue I had with the book is that the pacing can be a little bit slow. The pacing doesn't need to be slow for this book, but I am a very fast reader and when I get into a mood I really want to get done with the book so pacing is really hard for me.
Verdict: I cried.
Book: The Broken Miracle
Author: J.D. Netto and Paul Crandall
Book Series: The Broken Miracle Duology Book 1
Rating: 4/5
Recommended For...: Contemporary, hope
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Publisher: All Heart Publishing
Pages: 226
Recommended Age: 15+ (death, slight romance, depression)
Synopsis: We take many things for granted—but having a heart isn't one of them. Paul Cardall is an internationally acclaimed pianist whose career has been an inspiration to millions. But before the awards and success, he was just a little boy with half a functioning heart.
Numerous surgeries and many decades later, Paul is building a successful career despite the limitations his condition have infringed upon him. Now a husband and father, it seems that Paul has everything he could have ever hoped for...until his heart begins to fail.
As time passes, the pressure of his waning health and the seemingly endless wait for a new heart test not only Paul's faith, but his marriage and relationships as well. He begins to wonder if luck will ever be on his side or if it's time he let the curtains fall in what could be the final act of his life.
Though characters and places were fictionalized for storytelling purposes, the main events in the duology are real. Drawn from private notes and journals made available to the author, The Broken Miracle is a riveting story that will take the reader on an unforgettable journey.
Review: If you are wanting a book that will make you sob, this is your book. The book is very heartbreaking and it deals with a lot of things revolving around loss and hopelessness, but also miracles and hopefulness. I felt that the book was very well done and very well written. I really liked the character development and how the characters interacted with each other. I felt that that was very genuine in how they talked and interacted with each other. I also really like the world building and I felt like the plot hooks you in and doesn't let you go until you finish it and you are a sobbing mess on your bed.
the only really issue I had with the book is that the pacing can be a little bit slow. The pacing doesn't need to be slow for this book, but I am a very fast reader and when I get into a mood I really want to get done with the book so pacing is really hard for me.
Verdict: I cried.
Disclaimer: I received this book from @forwardpublicity. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Does Grandma Remember Me?
Author: Evita Sherman
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 5/5
Recommended For...: Young children, picture books
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Publisher: Mascot Books
Pages: 38
Recommended Age: 1+
Synopsis: As loved ones grow older, there are unfamiliar and confusing challenges that families must face. Does Grandma Remember Me? reminds readers that no matter what may change, love remains the same.
Review: This book is such a cute little book. The book hence on Grandma's memory issues and the fact that she has dementia. The book is very good at carefully trading the waters on how to explain to a child that while elderly people might be forgetful and/or might have an illness that makes them lose parts of their memory, that the love between a grandparent and a grandchild will always remain.
Verdict: It was so sweet!
Book: Does Grandma Remember Me?
Author: Evita Sherman
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 5/5
Recommended For...: Young children, picture books
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Publisher: Mascot Books
Pages: 38
Recommended Age: 1+
Synopsis: As loved ones grow older, there are unfamiliar and confusing challenges that families must face. Does Grandma Remember Me? reminds readers that no matter what may change, love remains the same.
Review: This book is such a cute little book. The book hence on Grandma's memory issues and the fact that she has dementia. The book is very good at carefully trading the waters on how to explain to a child that while elderly people might be forgetful and/or might have an illness that makes them lose parts of their memory, that the love between a grandparent and a grandchild will always remain.
Verdict: It was so sweet!